Amateur film of German Labor Service unit headed to the Eastern Front, including anti-Jewish indoctrination

Identifier
irn1004565
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2009.357.1
  • RG-60.1295
Dates
1 Jan 1942 - 31 Dec 1942
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • Silent
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

  • A. Funk (Camera Operator)
  • Imperial War Museums

Scope and Content

Amateur film with German titles shot by a member of the German Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) [State Labor Service] records scenes of cordial contact between Germans of this non-combatant (railway repair?) unit and local Polish and Russian civilians, some female, before the unit entrains for their Eastern Front destination of Stalingrad (not seen) during the German advance in the summer of 1942. Scenes include: "Lichaya the Steppes Town", traveling through Legionowo (Central Poland), bartering, soldiers ("Class of 1924") attending an anti-Jewish indoctrination lecture (classroom interior with a poster showing an antisemitic caricature of a Jew at 01:06:52), kitchen and laundry scenes, a camouflaged tent encampment at Oskoshnoye, Russian peasants "fleeing from the Soviet hordes", German military grave markers, sign for Belgorod military hospital (Russia), cooking and receiving rations, German RAD man and Rumanian soldier guarding marshalling yard, and tracking shots past Narewka (Eastern Poland) and Zelwa (Volkovysk region, Poland).

Note(s)

  • The Nazi propaganda poster that appears in this film (USHMM Photo Archives W/S 68331) is entitled, "Das judische Komplott" ("The Jewish Conspiracy"). The wall newspaper was issued by the "Parole der Woche" and published by the National Socialist Party propaganda office in Munich. Summary Notes by IWM cataloger: The sequence in this film appears muddled geographically and historically, as the film jumps between Poland and the USSR in the summer of 1942, unless this simply reflects the varied postings of the cameraman's unit. The main title appears halfway through the film (01:08:13), and may either be misplaced or indicate that the opening section of the reel was part of another film, although the amateur style is recognizably that of the same cameraman. The subtitle of the film "The Paradise" probably refers to the contemporary Nazi ironic attack on the Soviet Union, held up by the Nazis' Communist enemies as a "workers' paradise".

Subjects

  • RED CROSS
  • SWASTIKAS
  • GERMANS
  • CIVILIANS
  • SIGNS/POSTERS
  • RACIAL SCIENCE
  • HOSPITALS
  • SCHOOLS
  • WOMEN
  • REFUGEES
  • ANTISEMITISM
  • RAIL SYSTEMS
  • UNIFORMS
  • TRUCKS
  • FOOD
  • CHILDREN
  • EATING
  • MILITARY ADVANCES
  • FARMERS/FARMING
  • COOKING
  • PEASANTS
  • RAD (GERMAN LABOR SERVICE)
  • CARTS/WAGONS
  • STREETS
  • SOLDIERS/MILITARY (GERMAN)
  • TRAIN STATIONS
  • HITLER, ADOLF
  • PROPAGANDA (ANTI-JEWISH)
  • TRAINS
  • BICYCLES
  • TENTS
  • VILLAGES
  • GRAVES
  • POLES
  • BRIDGES
  • KITCHENS

Places

  • , Poland
  • , Soviet Union

Genre

  • Film
  • Amateur.
This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.